Caralee Johnson Adams has worked as a journalist for nearly 25 years, covering education, health, parenting, and other issues. She received her journalism degree from Iowa State University and her master’s degree in political science from the University of New Orleans.

Tuition continues to rise at public four-year colleges and universities, according to numbers released by the College Board today. At the same time, however, record increases in federal grant aid will provide some relief.

Community colleges basked in the spotlight at the White House earlier this month, reveling in the important role the administration said they would play in the economic recovery. Yet that national publicity has not translated into more funding. Indeed, campuses are stretched, trying to accommodate record numbers of students with less money. And a report released today projects more of the same next year. Most states surveyed expects an increase in enrollment and a decline in operating budgets will likely be the norm next year, according to Uncertain Recovery: Findings From the 2010 Survey of the National Council of State ...

We can give students all the advice we want about the college-application process, but what they really listen to are other students. Now, a group of 45 students at Ivy League schools are offering their services as mentors to college-bound students through a new website called IvyAlly. Some of the advice is free; some requires a fee. "Our vision is to level the playing field in the admissions process and shift it from one that favors those whose parents can afford advice," says Greg Klimowicz, a junior at the University of Pennsylvania and co-founder of the new site. The idea ...

There has been lots of talk in policy circles about the value of students taking college courses while still in high school. In an effort to expand these opportunities, A Policymaker's Guide to Early College Designs: Expanding a Strategy for Achieving College Readiness for All has been developed by Jobs for the Future, a Boston-based nonprofit. Early-college designs adapt dual enrollment as a schoolwide strategy, focusing on unprepared, low-income students who may need extra academic support to get into and succeed in college. Often, it's the students already on track for college who are most likely to take college-prep classes. ...

Feel like the college-application process is ramping up? Now a report, released yesterday, confirms it. Each year, the National Association of College Admissions Counselors surveys counseling and admission officers to learn more about what's happening in the field and track trends in admission and counseling over time. The 2010 State of College Admission Report shows that nearly 75 percent of students now apply to three or more colleges, an increase of 14 percent in the past two decades. The percentage of students who submitted seven or more applications reached 23 percent last year, up from 9 percent in 1990. Although ...

Getting a college degree is still just a dream for many young minorities in the United States. New numbers in a report released today by the American Council on Education show no appreciable progress in postsecondary attainment among young Hispanics and African-Americans compared with their older peers in the past two years. However, women and Asian-Americans are moving ahead of their older counterparts. The United States is no longer gaining ground in educational attainment from one generation to the next, according to Minorities in Higher Education 2010;Twenty-Fourth Status Report , which uses data from the U.S. Department of Education's ...

What schools need now are more counselorsnot fewerbased on experts' recommendations. This is particularly true in high schools, where students are eager for help navigating the transition to college and careers. But the reality is that counselors are stretched, trying to give advice and direction to a larger group of students every year. Although the American School Counselor Association recommends a 250-to-1 ratio of students to school counselors, the national average is actually 457 (2008-09 school year). Click here to see how the individual states stacks up. The reason for the gap in the association's recommendations and reality?...

When a student does poorly on a community college assessment test, it can be the beginning of the end of his or her career in higher education. Too often, students take the test unprepared, end up in developmental education courses, become discouraged, and never finish their degrees. A report looking at student experiences with assessment and course placement in California Community Colleges highlights the lack of testing awareness and gaps in the transition process. Mike Kirst, professor emeritus of education at Stanford University, was a chief consultant to the report, One Shot Deal, a two-year research study funded by the ...

College is too costly these days not to shop around. In his paper, "Is College Worth the Investment?" Mark Schneider, a former official at the U.S. Department of Education and scholar at the American Enterprise Institute for Public Policy Research, finds the answer on the value of higher education varies widely. Return on an investment from a college degree is higher at more selective universities and at public universities, his research found. And within each level, there was a wide range among individual colleges. Indeed, some simply were not worth the investment when he looked at the price tag, ...

The American Association of Community Colleges today launched a leadership initiative and free online resource center for community colleges to share information about educating the workforce in the green economy.

A new report on raising college completion rates says schools need better comparative data, both on students' basic skills and how they are doing in early courses, to provide the support those students need.

Community colleges are crucial to assuring that America has the highly skilled workforce needed in the global competition for jobs, President Obama told education, business, and policy leaders attending the opening session of the White House Summit on Community Colleges.

Leaders from higher education, philanthropy, business, and policy are meeting at the White House today to put a spotlight on how community colleges fit into President Obama's goal of helping the nation lead the world in college graduates by 2020.